The Armenian Society for the Protection of Birds (ASPB) was founded in 2002. It is an NGO of 15 members. ASPB’s mission it to conserve birds, the habitats upon which they depend and areas of strategic importance to birds through active involvement of local communities. ASPB is the Birdlife International Affiliate in Armenia.

Since 2002, ASPB administers the national Important Bird Areas (IBA) programme and has identified 18 IBAs in Armenia, working with BirdLife partner organizations in the Caucasus and Europe. Since 2005 ASPB has worked to establish a national network of local “IBA Caretakers” to deliver conservation goals at site level. Internationally, ASPB has contributed to development of the CEPF Caucasus Ecosystem profile. It collaborative with the RA Ministry of Agriculture, the society acts as a National Avian Influenza Surveillance Group and has been consulted by leading donor organizations (WB, UNDP, FAO) on this issue.

ASPB has a wide-ranging conservation expertise, including surveying wildlife, trapping, handling and telemetering large birds of prey and recruiting volunteers for field work. Since the early days of its formation, ASPB has been studying and protecting the endangered Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) and has lately launched a satellite telemetry programme to track the migration movements of this species. Similarly, ASPB studies and provides advice regarding the protection of the globally threatened Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) and has built artificial nest-boxes to increase the Lesser Kestrel’s breeding population in Armenia.